Peter Hassrick is a writer and independent American art
scholar who focuses on the American West. He lives in Cody, Wyoming, and
serves a national and international constituency of museums as a guest curator.
He is the Founding Director Emeritus of the Charles M. Russell Center for
the Study of Art of the American West at the University of Oklahoma in Norman,
Oklahoma. He was also the founding Director of The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
in Santa Fe, New Mexico, leading it from inception to opening in 16 months.
For 20 years prior to that, Hassrick served as the Director of the Buffalo
Bill Historical Center in Cody. Under his guidance, the Historical Center
gained accreditation by the American Association of Museums and grew dynamically
in both physical and fiscal dimensions to become the largest museum of art
and history between Minneapolis and San Francisco. From 1969 to 1976, he
was Curator of Collections at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
He has taught and lectured widely.

Hassrick was born in Philadelphia and raised in Denver.
He earned a B.A. in History from the University of Colorado and a M.A. in
Art History from the University of Denver, with a concentration in 19th-century
and early 20th-century American Art. Hassrick's devotion to the history
and art of the American West has inspired numerous exhibitions, lectures
and publications that he has produced throughout his career. His books include
Frederic Remington (1973), The Way West (1977), The Rocky
Mountains: A Vision for Artists in the 19th Century (1983) with Patricia
Trenton, Treasures of the Old West (1984), George Catlin: Drawings
of North American Indians (1984), Charles Russell (1989), Frederic
Remington: A Catalogue Raisonné of Oils, Watercolors and Drawings
(1996) with Melissa Webster, The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (1997),
The American West: Out of Myth, Into Reality (2000), Remington,
Russell and the Language of Western Art (2000), Gordon Snidow: My
Story (2002) and Drawn to Yellowstone: Artists in America's First
National Park (2002).

In 2003 Hassrick completed several years of research and
writing as guest curator of the exhibition and author of the accompanying
catalogue, Wildlife and Western Heroes: Alexander Phimister Proctor:
Sculptor, for the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth. The show can now
be seen at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody.

Hassrick is married to Elizabeth Drake Hassrick, a newspaper
reporter, and has two grown sons, Philip, a doctor, and Charles, an environmental
designer.

Resource Library editor's
note:

Resource Library extends its
appreciation to Ms. Diane C. Salisbury, Director of Exhibitions, Trust for
Museum Exhibitions for securing permission from the Trust for publishing
of this essay. The essay is from pages 15 through 56 in the 176-page fully-illustrated
catalogue for the touring exhibition The American West: Out of Myth,
Into Reality. ISBN 1-882507-08-8.